


Haunted

by StephaniD



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Gen, Ghost Hunting, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Jail, Teenagers, parenting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-17
Updated: 2020-11-17
Packaged: 2021-03-10 07:00:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27599264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StephaniD/pseuds/StephaniD
Summary: Jake, Nog, and Ziyal suspect that an abandoned set of quarters is haunted. So they investigate. And like all rulebreakers on DS9, they get caught by Odo.
Comments: 9
Kudos: 12





	Haunted

**Author's Note:**

> I did a Trek-themed drawing challenge for October, this fic is inspired by one of those drawings (seen below). Honestly, we were cheated of Teens Hanging Out Annoying Odo content (or really any good Ziyal content) so I made my own.  
> (Prompt list by [hi_tec_trekfashionmemes](https://www.instagram.com/hi_tec_trekfashionmemes/) at [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/p/CFzNNvHlB6F/?igshid=1jdpbqkrh0gol))

"You know how there's still that section of unused habitat ring?" Jake asked one afternoon as the teens played Dom-Jot on their padds. 

"Yeah." Ziyal and Nog replied. 

"It hasn't been touched in years, I wonder what it looks like." Jake mused. 

"Probably really dirty." Ziyal replied. 

"And dark, the station was darker when the Cardassians were in charge." Nog replied. 

"It would probably depend on whose quarters it was." Ziyal added. 

"I wonder if we could find that out." Jake thought aloud. "Maybe they forgot something interesting when they left." 

"Hey, Odo, I was hoping to see the records for who lived where when the station was under Cardassian rule." Jake asked. 

"Why do you want to see that?" The chief of security asked. 

"I'm uh, I'm thinking of writing a history novel." Jake answered. "History of the station. Maybe of one set of quarters." 

"Hm. I'll have to look over the list first, make sure there's nothing confidential." Odo replied. 

"I understand. Thanks, Odo." 

The trio pored over the history of the station, lists of flight logs with crew and passenger manifests, quarters assignments, death certificates. 

"Uh, Ziyal, you don't have to look at this if you don't want." Jake said, noticing that all the death certificates they were finding were Bajoran. 

"I'm fine, Jake. My not looking at it doesn't mean it didn't happen." She replied. "I just hope their pagh are at rest." 

"What do you mean?" Nog asked. 

"Bajorans believe that after you die, your pagh, your spirit, goes to the Celestial Temple to live in peace with the Prophets. I worry that their pagh are not at peace, living and dying like they did." 

"You mean haunted." Jake realized. "Humans used to believe that if a person died suddenly or had unfinished business, their spirit would like, stick around where they died and cause problems for the living people." 

"That's wrong." Nog stated. "When you die you go to the Blessed Exchequer. If you made more profit in your life than loss, he lets you bid on your next life. If you were more in debt than profitable, you go to the Vault of Eternal Destitution." 

"Jake, you said humans _used_ to believe that." Ziyal noted. 

"Yeah." Jake looked at his padd. "I asked my dad about it after Mom died, it's one of the things we still can't figure out. We don't know what happens after you die because we can't bring people back from all the way dead." He shrugged. 

"Probably because they already talked to the Blessed Exchequer and had their wealth tallied." Nog replied. 

"Maybe that's just for Ferengi." Ziyal suggested. "Maybe only Ferengi can talk to the Blessed Exchequer, and maybe only Bajorans can go to the Celestial Temple." 

"That does make sense." Nog mused. 

"Uncle, do humans talk to the Blessed Exchequer after they die?" Nog asked during a slow period at the bar. 

"What?" Quark asked. He grabbed Nog's drink and took a swig, then grimaced. "Nobody spiked your root beer, what are you talking about?" 

"When Jake and the humans die, do they talk to the Blessed Exchequer? He said humans don't know what happens after death, and I said I know what happens." 

"Why were you and Jake talking about death?" Quark asked. 

"He was talking about his mom." Nog replied. "Well, do they?" 

"I don't know if the Blessed Exchequer would know what to do with people who don't believe in gaining profit, Nog. I've never heard of people like humans getting to bid on their next lives, because they wouldn’t have any money to." 

"So you don't know?" 

"Finish your root beer and find someone else to bother, Nog. You're upsetting the customers." 

"The only one here is Morn." Nog protested. Quark didn't respond.

"Hey Dad, what do you know about ghosts?" Jake asked over dinner. 

"Ghosts? They're supposed to be the spirits of the dead, unable to find rest." Ben replied. 

"Why wouldn't they be able to find rest?" 

"Well, according to the old stories, if they were murdered or just didn't realize they died, they might become ghosts. What's this all about?" 

"I'm thinking of writing a story." 

"Your granddad would probably know more about this than me, New Orleans has plenty of ghost stories." 

"Good idea, thanks Dad." 

"I have a question. A religious question." Ziyal stated over dinner. 

"I'll try my best to answer." Kira smiled. 

"What happens to Bajorans after death?" 

"We join the Prophets in the Celestial Temple." 

"Is there anything that can stop that?" 

"Why do you want to know?" Kira frowned in concern. 

"It's, um, I was thinking about my mom. And she died far away from the Celestial Temple." Ziyal replied. 

"It's hard to say." Kira sighed. "Her pagh could have trouble finding its way. If she had turned away from the Prophets and to the Pah Wraiths, they'd try to get her to join them in the Fire Caves. And even if her pagh is at peace, her memories may always linger in that place." Kira put a hand over Ziyal's. "We can go to the shrine to pray for her pagh if you like." 

"Please." Ziyal smiled. "That would help me feel better." 

They had narrowed their search to occupants and death certificates in the currently uninhabited quarters of the habitat ring. They knew that finding anything of value was very unlikely, the Cardassians would have taken it with them, but finding a ghost? That was looking to be more possible. They had padds strewn all over the living room in Jake and Nog's quarters. 

"Hey, this set of quarters had a bunch of people living there." Nog alerted the others. "8 people 15 years ago." 

"Okay, give us a minute to finish up and we'll help you." Ziyal nodded. 

"I'm going to get started on the first person listed." He replied. "These are all Bajoran women." 

"Oh, that's uh, I'll tell you about it later." Jake cut in. 

"It's probably quarters for the comfort women, when they were allowed to sleep in their own beds." Ziyal stated. "I think that might be a good place to check out, Kira told me that a person's memories can haunt a place, even if their pagh is at peace. And there were probably lots of women staying in those quarters over the years. Seriously Jake, you don't have to protect me, I know what sorts of things happened. My mother was a comfort woman." She reminded him. 

"Right. Sorry." 

"First woman left the station, moving to the second woman on the list." Nog announced. 

"Hey Chief, have you ever heard of a place being haunted?" Nog asked as the man sat at Quark's bar. 

"Sure, loads of superstitious crewmen will insist that a specific deck, room, turbolift, what have you is haunted." He replied. 

"How do you know if a place is haunted?" 

"Some folks get shivers, or feel like they're being watched. I've had folks insist they saw something, or heard footsteps, or someone whispering." 

"And someone had died there?" Nog added. 

"Well, people are creative. Ships and stations get old enough, they're bound to have death in their history, and superstitious types will use that to explain what they experienced. Place like this," he gestured around at the station with his pint glass, "I'm surprised we don't hear more complaints of ghosts. Lots of death, lots of things breaking, guess we have a lower than average superstitious population." He mused and sipped his beer. "What's this about, anyway? Why are you asking about places being haunted?" 

"I um, I overheard something." 

"Don't you go spreading rumors about ghosts, Nog." O'Brien commanded. "I already have enough problems." 

"I understand, Chief." Nog nodded. 

"Hey Odo, I wanted to say thanks for getting me that information." Jake smiled as he entered the security office. 

"You're welcome." He replied dismissively. 

"I was wondering, you were chief of security when the Cardassians were in charge, do you know anything about the unused sections of the station?" 

"What do you want to know?" Odo asked. 

"Well, the habitat ring, we- I noticed when looking at all the death certificates that some of them were in the parts of the habitat ring we're not using, do you remember anything about them?" 

"I didn't investigate those, you'll have to do research for your story elsewhere." 

"Okay. Thanks, Odo." Jake nodded and left, the chief of security only giving a dismissive grunt. 

Nog crouched down and slipped behind the bar and opened Quark's stash of security clearance rods. He just needed one high enough to get into the abandoned quarters, but not so high that it would be missed. His uncle had plenty of lower level clearances. He grabbed one and closed the drawer, crouching down again. 

"Nog!" Quark cried. Nog stuck his hands behind his back and slipped the rod up his sleeve as he turned to face his uncle. "What are you doing?" 

"I was just going to grab a drink." Nog answered. 

"You need to pay like everyone else, you know that." Quark replied. 

"The Starfleet uniform doesn't have pockets. I'll pay you back later, Uncle." 

"Unless you want to start a tab, if you want a drink, you pay first." 

"Okay, I'll go get the latinum from my quarters." Nog sighed, trudging away. 

"Are you sure it's a high enough security clearance?" Jake whispered as they walked the corridors past 0200 hours. 

"I'm sure, now shut up." Nog hissed. Jake double checked the quarters that they were looking for. 

"On the right, 5 more doors." 

They found the door and Nog got them into the pitch black quarters. 

"Computer, lights." He commanded. The computer didn’t respond. 

"Maybe it only responds to Cardassi in these quarters." Jake suggested quietly. "Ziyal?" 

"Computer, lights." She tried. Nothing happened so she pulled a palm torch out of her pocket. They slowly looked around the messy quarters.

"What do we do if there is a ghost?" Jake whispered. 

"They can't hurt us, right? They're dead." Nog whispered back. 

"I think they can mess with stuff." Jake replied. 

"Mess with us?!" Nog asked. "Maybe we should leave." 

"If there is a ghost here, we should help them move on." Ziyal stated. "Do you think we should check the bedrooms?" 

"Uh, sure. You first, you have the light." Jake said. They headed to the first bedroom. 

"Do you hear footsteps?" Nog hissed. 

"They're our footsteps. Right?" Jake replied. 

"I didn't hear anything." Ziyal shrugged. "I'm going to check the bedroom. How do we know if there's a ghost?" 

"Lots of ways." Nog replied, following. "O'Brien said you can hear them, feel cold, sometimes even see them." 

"I'm kinda cold." Jake replied. They watched the beam of light slowly sweep the room. 

"I think I heard something! Over there!" Nog pointed. 

"Over where? I can't see where you're pointing." Ziyal replied. Nog grabbed her wrist to move the light back to a previous dark corner. It revealed a tall figure standing near them. They all cried out and scrambled backwards in fright. 

"Alright, that's enough shenanigans, my office." Odo commanded. The trio paused to catch their breaths upon finding it wasn’t a ghost that had scared them. 

"Odo, you don't understand, these quarters are haunted!" Jake protested. 

"Really?" Odo asked condescendingly. 

"Yeah! We-" 

"Were caught trespassing." Odo interrupted. "You can tell me all about it from inside a holding cell, come on." The young people sighed and shuffled to the security office. 

"Would you prefer I tell your parents now, or in the morning?" Odo asked once they were in a holding cell. The trio looked at each other. "Miss Tora, I'm going to alert Colonel Kira to pick you up." 

"What time is it?" Ziyal asked. 

"Almost three hundred hours." Odo replied. 

"Morning." Jake sighed, sitting on a bench. 

"Morning." Nog agreed. 

"Morning." Ziyal followed their lead. Odo nodded and left. 

"We definitely didn't think that through well enough." Jake sighed as they all laid on benches. 

"I'll say." Nog agreed. 

"Miss Tora." Odo woke them. "Kira will be here soon." 

"Okay." She replied, then looked to her friends. "Do you think she's going to be mad?" 

"Probably?" Jake replied. "I don't know what Kira's like as a mom, but you can explain everything to her and she shouldn't be as mad. That usually works with my dad. Then they're just disappointed in you." 

"Is that better or worse?" Ziyal sighed. 

"My dad's going to be so disappointed in me." Nog sighed. "We're each other's motivation and now I let him down." 

"People mess up. It happens. He's an engineer, he knows mistakes happen." Jake encouraged. 

"Yeah, but still…" 

Kira walked in looking down, one arm across her chest, her other hand pinching the bridge of her nose. Odo released the forcefield and Kira jerked her head sideways for Ziyal to follow. Ziyal glanced back at her friends before following her surrogate mother, who was still silent, still pinching the bridge of her nose. 

"Hey Dad." Jake sighed as he stood, his father looking at him with crossed arms. 

"Don't give me 'hey dad', what were you thinking?!" Sisko demanded. 

"We thought there might be a Bajoran ghost who like, needed to be set free!" Jake protested. Sisko rubbed a hand over his own face. 

"So you decided to investigate alone." 

"Not alone, Nog and Ziyal were there." Jake stopped when his father held up a hand. 

"You can explain yourself over breakfast, I haven't even had a raktajino yet." 

Rom sighed and looked at his son. 

"I'm sorry Father, I know we should have told someone, but we didn't think you'd believe us-" Nog stopped as Rom held him in a tight embrace. 

"Why did you think I wouldn't believe you?" He asked as they walked out. "I'm your father, I'm always here to try to help." 


End file.
